'It's amazing the people that call you after you win'

A week after winning pole in Barber, Ben Spies was quickest in Friday qualifying at Fontana. His best time was a 1:23.374, under the existing lap record at Fontana.

"We did that on a soft tire and we saved one for tomorrow," said Spies. "It was a good lap. We made a couple mistakes. I told the guys a perfect lap is going to be a 1:22.9. If you can get that (tomorrow), I don't know."

Spies says he was quick on race tires as well. "We did 1:23.9 on the race tire we're probably going to be racing on even if it gets hot. It was a good day and we've got a really good setup. We'll fine-tune the bike a little bit, but it's pretty close."

Ben said one of his biggest problems was catching a cold between Barber and Fontana, but that he was able to ride well. "Last night, I was actually really worried about how the weekend was going to go," he said.